Of Cats and Smoke Alarms
by thatsformetoknow
Summary: In which Dan is the neighbour that keeps setting off the smoke alarm in the building and Phil is the neighbour that offers to give him cooking lessons, tired of his Buffy marathons and sleep schedules being messed up. Throw in a few house plants and Dan's cat that Phil happens to be completely in love with, if a little allergic to, and love is sure to blossom, right?


This isn't the first time it's happened. Actually, it's the fourth time this week.

Phil won't pretend he isn't annoyed; he'd _just_ sat down to watch Buffy and again there had been that loud beeping signifying that someone had set their smoke alarm off.

That someone being Daniel Howell who lived next door.

It doen't help that Phil is already in his pyjamas, and perhaps it would- no. There it is, the significantly _louder_ beeping of the _buildings_ smoke alarm signifying that everyone should up and leave their apartments in the middle of the night until the landlord investigated and made sure that they didn't need to call the fire brigade.

They never did.

Though Phil wouldn't be surprised if they did.

So Phil gets up with a heavy sigh and throws on a jacket, before grabbing up his keys and opening his front door – just to see Dan, cat in arms, jacketless and shoeless, rushing out of the building.

'Really, Dan?' Phil asks flatly. 'Again?'

'I'm sorry! I have some family coming over next weekend and I'm trying to practice cooking and I just can't seem to get the hang of it.'

Phil shakes his head. 'I was just sitting down to watch Buffy, too.'

'I'm really sorry, Phil.'

They walk down together and Phil leans across to stroke Dan's cat' head; she's such a pretty thing, with long cream fur and a little pink nose, big blue eyes and the silkiest purr you've ever heard.

Okay, so Phil is totally in love with Dan's cat.

'Hey there, Susie.' Phil cooes, being ushered down the stairs by dan.

Everyone is glaring at Dan as they stand outside, half past ten in the evening and all in the street and its freaking cold.

'Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.' Dan keeps saying to everyone and Susie leaps out of Dan's arms and Dan rushes after her and Phil only laughs.

'Susie no! It's not safe!' He cries, chasing after her until Phil manages to snag her and Dan looks up at him gratefully.

'Oh no, I'm keeping her now.' Phil says with a smile. 'She likes me better anyway.'

Dan sticks his tongue out. 'Nuh-uh. I'm her daddy.'

Phil snorts. 'Yeah yeah, tell that to the cat fur all over my apartment.'

Dan reaches again for Susie but Phil raises an eyebrow before handing her back.

'Don't think you're off the hook, Howell, I was still about to watch Buffy.'

Dan looks guilty and Phil smirks.

'How about this then. It just so happens, that I am an expert in the culinary life.'

Dan looks sceptical. 'You are, huh?'

'You don't see _me_ setting off any smoke alarms, do you?' Phil asks smugly.

'Well, you got me there.'

'So? It really doesn't help that you like to stay up trying to cook until freaking one am. I like my sleep.'

'Okay, I'd be really grateful if you'd help me.'

Phil nods. 'Anything to salvage Buffy.'

It isn't long before Dan starts hop from leg to leg in an attempt to keep himself warm and Phil plucks Susie from Dan' arms, seeing as she looks completely terrified.

'You only have yourself to blame.' Phil remarks, stroking Susie and ignoring the slight itching of his eyes.

Soon enough, they're outside of their apartments and Phil isn't really sure why he has never really talked to Dan much, seeing as their neighbours of a similar age and Phil is quite accustomed to Dan's music tastes by now (Muse, so all good, though not especially at three in the morning).

'Do you want to come in?' Phil asks in an attempt to be a friendly neighbour.

'What about Buffy?'

'Are you opposed to Buffy?' Phil asks, eyeing Dan sceptically.

Dan shakes his head and raises his hand in surrender. 'No, no, of course not.'

'Then you'd rather go to bed? It is late, after all, you should probably check that Linda didn't drench your kitchen in water from the fire you clearly created.'

'Well, the fire brigade didn't need to be called, so fingers crossed.'

Phil nods and unlocks his front door, setting Susie down on the floor and she strolls over the threshold as she has done hundreds of times before.

Phil is suddenly conscious that he and Dan might have sort of known each other for a number of years now since Dan moved in after Uni (he supposes) but he's never actually seen the inside of his flat and Phil is biting his lip and looking around, wishing he'd picked up the pair of socks that are on his coffee table.

'It's very colourful.' Dan observes, looking around with interest and Phil laughs a little self consciously.

'Uhh, yeah, I wasn't really expecting company, sorry for the mess.'

'If you didn't want company, you shouldn't have invited me in.' Dan counters with a smirk, plopping himself down on Phil's sofa in front of the TV where Buffy is still on the menu screen of the box set DVD.

'Hot chocolate?' Phil asks.

'Cheesy, but yes please.'

Phil laughs and goes into the kitchen.

'You have a lot of house plants.' Dan's voice comes from behind him and Phil jumps so violently that he shoots hot chocolate powder all over the side from the tea spoon.

Dan laughs. 'Sorry, didn't mean to make you jump.'

'It's okay.' Phil says, shaking his head and sighing with a smile.

'So, this is a culinary master at work, is it?' Dan quips, laughing as Phil spills a little more hot chocolate powder over the sides. 'Why are you so jumpy?' Dan asks.

'Why are you so comfortable? We've hardly ever spoken before.' Phil demands, spinning to look at Dan as he rifles through Phil's cupboards and pulls out an open bag of marshmallows.

Dan shrugs. 'Dunno. You're somehow easy to be around. I'm usually quite shy actually.'

Phil snorts. 'Could've fooled me.'

'You're the one that invited me in.'

'I was being neighbourly.'

Dan's eyes narrow but in a playful way. 'Oh? And offering cooking lessons is neighbourly, huh?'

'What else?' Phil asks, taking the marshmallows from Dan and putting them into the hot drinks, carrying them into the living room and sitting down on the sofa.

Dan sits close to him and breathes in his ear, 'If I didn't know better, Philip, I'd say you were flirting with me.'

Phil splutters. 'M-me? Flirting with you? If anything _you're_ flirting with _me!'_

'I'm only teasing.' Dan says and puts a little distance between them as he picks up his hot chocolate from the coffee table and looks at Phil expectantly.

'What?'

'Buffy?'

'Right.' He replies, shaking his head and presses start, ignoring the slight smirk he can see on Dan's face.

* * *

 **This is only going to be a few chapters, maybe five, maybe less but thoughts?**

 **This is for Charlotte, i hope this helps to cheer you up a little, sweetheart, love you ^_^**


End file.
